Naples, Everglades and Okechobee - February 2025

In mid February we set off from St Petersburg to explore a little bit more of Florida.  We started by driving south to Fort Myers where Thomas Edison and Henry Ford had their vacation homes.  These relatively modest homes are now museums and the public can explore the homes, the gardens and Edison's botanical laboratory.

Thomas Edison's Vacation Home, Ft Myers

Edison was the first to visit Fort Myers and he liked it so much he had a vacation home built there.  Henry Ford, a friend of Edison's, visited him there several times and enjoyed it so much that he bought the neighboring house for his use.  Interestingly one of Henry Ford's early jobs, before he started working on automobiles, was working for the Edison Lighting Company in Detroit.

Edison's Botanic Research Lab

The disruptions of the First World War gave Edison and Ford concern about the supply of rubber for automobile tires.  Most of the rubber then was being sourced from the far east and that was a risky supply route.  The two of them teamed up with Harvey Firestone, the tire manufacturer, and created the Edison Botanic Research Company to try and develop a domestic source of rubber.  They built a laboratory and research garden next to the Ft Myers houses and tested some 17,000 plants as potential sources.  They determined a species of flowering goldenrod was their best option but it was never commercialized.  Other sources of synthetic rubber were later developed so nothing further was done with goldenrod.

Kapok Tree or Aceiba

Banyan Tree

There were some impressive trees in the gardens of the estate - a huge banyan tree, a kapok tree and a large ficus.  What I was really impressed with was the relatively modest nature of the two homes.  Here were two industrial giants of their time and they lived in a relatively simple fashion down in Ft Myers.  Likely they had more a more lavish lifestyle up north.

Naples Beach

We drove on to Naples in the late afternoon.  Naples was quite a shock to me.  There are nice beaches there with beautiful white sand but beyond that there was nothing to appeal.  Street after street of extravagant large homes, manicured gardens, people driving around in expensive cars.  There was sort of a main street (5th Ave South) populated entirely by restaurants, bars, galleries and expensive shops but there didn't seem to be any particular center to the town - there was indeed no there there.

The other thing about Naples was the early dining experience.  All the fine restaurants on 5th Ave were full of diners at 5:00 pm.  I had never seen such a thing.  Apparently they were all taking advantage of the happy hour discount deals.

We should have realized we were in a different world when our usual measure of hotel prices, the Holiday Inn Express, normally around $200 a night was over $400 in Naples.  Being frugal, we stayed a little way out of town at a more humble Red Roof Inn.

The next morning we drove into town for coffee.  The clientele were all well healed and smartly dressed and there was not just one but two Ferraris parked outside.

We drove south-east towards the Everglades National Park on Highway 41.  This is known as the Tamiami Trail, the road that runs between Tampa and Miami.  Before reaching the Everglades we crossed into the Big Cypress National Preserve where we stopped at the Visitor Center for some guidance on what what we should see.  Armed with a rough idea of where to go we drove on for a while before realizing we were going to run out of gas.  We turned back and that brought us to Everglades City, a town we had missed while driving out.  Everglades City is a small town living off tourism with a few hotels, a few restaurants, air boat rides and canoe rentals.

Everglades City Bank Building

Further beyond Everglades City, further south to the end of the road is Chokoloskee Island.  We dined on Chokoloskee Island at Havanna's Restaurant (spelling with two n's as in Anna) - excellent grits and eggs and plantains.

Smallwood's Store and Post Office, Chokoloskee

At the end of the road on Chokoloskee is a small museum in an old wooden store - Ted Smallwood's Store.  The museum is really just a collection of artifacts and memorabilia from the early 1900's.  The store was opened in 1906 and served as a trading post and post office for the first white settlers in the area.  It really had a frontier feel about it.

Smallwood's Store Rear

It was in the store that I learned that Peter Matthiessen had written several books about the area, in particular about some nefarious goings on in Chockoloskee.  I was familiar with Matthiessen but not his Florida books.  I need to add his novel Shadow Country to my reading list.

Alligators basking in the sun

From Chokoloskee we drove east through Big Cypress Preserve stopping at another Visitor's Center where we had an overlook from the boardwalk down to a canal full of fish and alligators.  The fish were jumping but the alligators were barely moving - they just lay there motionless until something sparked them into action, which they do quite explosively, before settling down once more to a life of immobility.  

Clyde Butcher's Photography

Further along highway 41 we stopped at the Clyde Butcher Gallery.  Mr Butcher is the Ansel Adams of the Everglades.  He has taken many beautiful pictures of the Everglades with his large format camera - all black and white, all quite wonderful photographs.

We moved on east to the Shark Valley entrance to Everglades National Park.  The parking at this entry point was full so it was one car in for every one car out.  We had to wait a while at the entrance alongside a narrow canal.  Of course there was the odd alligator cruising up and down the channel.

Great Blue Heron

In the park we got the last two tickets for the next departure of the tram tour around what was a 15 mile loop trail.  It was a great way to experience the Everglades with stops along the way and narration from a naturalist.  Of course there were the usual alligators and snakes but also many fine birds - anhingas, double-crested cormorants, egrets (great and snowy), white ibises, herons of various varieties (great blue, tri-colored), a purple gallinule, several wood storks.   

The Everglades Prairie

I had expected the Everglades to be all green wetlands but no, it was mainly brown prairie that looked quite dry.  However, up close you could see that the ground was indeed wet and swampy.  In the winter the area is usually flooded, in the summer it is drier but still a bit soft and squishy.  Hammocks of trees were scattered around the prairie.  The trees grow where there is a depression filled with water.  This encourages the growth of trees and vegetation and these little mounds of vegetation dot the landscape.  Some are anchored around cypress trees, others around willows.  Of course there are palm trees everywhere amongst the other trees.

Wood Stork

Leaving the park and heading back to the Tamiami Trail, we continued our drive to Flamingo where we were staying that night.  Flamingo is at the end of the road at the southern tip of the park - the most southerly community on mainland Florida. 

Our route skirted the edges of Miami and traveled through land devoted to plant nurseries.  Most of the nurseries, and there were mile after mile of them, were raising ornamental plants and palm trees.

Close to sunset, we drove into the National Park again.  We had the pleasure of being stopped by the Park Ranger for speeding (allegedly).  They checked us out before finally letting us go with a warning.  We drove on to Flamingo at a slightly reduced speed.  It was dark when we arrived at our hotel, the Flamingo Lodge.  A nice modern hotel with a pretty good restaurant.

Mangrove on Buttonwood Canal

Next morning, Saturday morning, we got up and after coffee on the veranda looking south towards the Florida Keys, we bought tickets for a boat tour of the inland waters to the north of Flamingo.  The boat first went up the Buttonwood Canal to Coot Bay.  The on-board naturalist pointed out various sights along the way - a crocodile (called Fred) in the harbor, an osprey nest also in the harbor, various types of mangrove (red, black and white), gumbo limbo trees, tri-colored herons, anhingas spreading their wings out to dry in the sun.

Oysters growing on Mangroves in Tarpon Creek

We crossed Coot Bay and went up Tarpon Creek to enter the large expanse of water in Whitewater Bay.  In Tarpon Creek, a natural waterway, the water is flowing so it can accommodate filter feeders like oysters.  All the roots of the mangroves there had oysters attached.   

Fred the Crocodile, Flamingo Harbor

Back in the harbor at the end of the trip, we found Fred, the crocodile still swimming around.  All in all, a nice trip into yet another different environment in the Everglades.

Back on shore we stopped to observe the manatees floating around in the harbor.  The water was not very clear there so the viewing was not optimal.  We followed this up with a walk along the coast to the west.  It was quite windy so the temperature and mosquitos were moderated. I imagine it would be quite unpleasant in the heat of summer in mosquito season.  

To the west of our hotel, there was an area where some nice tents had been located for those who wanted to camp - the so-called glamping experience.  I can't imagine that being much fun in the heat of summer either.

Dead Mangroves

Leaving Flamingo we came across a large swath of land covered in dead mangrove trees.   It was just like the burned out tree stumps we see in California after a forest fire.  Apparently, in the aftermath of a storm there had been an inundation of the land with sea water, and while mangroves do tolerate a certain amount of salty water, they cannot live if totally immersed in it.  It looked like the recovery might take quite some time.  Unlike after a forest fire, there were no green shoots appearing.

The impenetrable thicket of a Hammock

On the way out of the park, we stopped at two or three spots where the Parks Department had created boardwalks into the wilderness.  The first was an example of a Mahogany Hammock.  The Mahogany trees provide a foundation for other trees and growth around them that result in these islands of impenetrable vegetation sticking out on the flat prairie.  The boardwalk made a circular route through the middle of the hammock. 

Pah-Hay-Okee

The next was Pah-Hay-Okee, a nice viewing platform for looking out over the sea of grass and cypress trees.

The Gumbo Limbo Tree

Finally the Royal Palm area where there were magnificent royal palm trees as well as a lot of gumbo limbo trees.  Gumbo limbos are beautiful red/orange skinned trees with a soft flaky bark.  They call them tourist trees because they resemble the burnt peeling skin of a tourist who has indulged in too much sun. 

Purple Gallinule

At the Royal Palm area there was a bi-crested cormorant, a great blue heron and a crocodile all posing for photographs as people walked by on the trail.  However best of all was a beautiful purple gallinule, a rarer bird, my favorite bird, that also didn't seem to be bothered by people.

We left the park and drove on north along the west side of Miami.  We weren't sure where to stay that night but we wanted to end up near to Lake Okeechobee.  It was Saturday night on a three day President's Day weekend and our choices of hotel were few and far between.  Also we were seeing expensive hotels again - $400+ Holiday Inn Expresses.  We settled for a Best Western in Clewiston on the south west side of the lake.

We arrived in Clewiston after dark.  It was not a particularly attractive town.  Nothing much to see - gas stations, fast food outlets, convenience stores, Dollar Generals and a Walmart.

The Southern End of Lake Okeechobee

The next morning, Sunday morning, we went for a drive around Lake Okeechobee.  Lake Okeechobee is a huge lake, the largest in Florida, some 730 square miles.  It claims to have the best bass fishing in the world but I wouldn't know.  There was a lookout tower on a place called Torry Island at the south end of the lake that we visited.  The lookout provided a view over the southern end of the lake that was mainly covered by reeds and grass.  There were hints of the lake's water in the far distance.

The Armored Cat Fish

There were dozens of dead fish lying around on the trail and in the grass.  They were all armored cat fish - nasty looking black fish with armored skin.  Apparently the Ospreys, of which there were several in the area, are great fishermen, but they cannot tear into the armored cat fish's skin.  Unfortunately they cannot identify the armored catfish until they have snatched them from the lake.  So whenever they catch one they just discard it and go out to find another fish that is less well protected.  The armored catfish is a non-native invasive from South America.

There is a lot of sugar cane grown in central Florida.  One of the ways that they harvest sugar cane is to burn off the foliage from the stems before cutting the cane.  This causes a lot of smoke pollution with all the associated health risks.  We drove along the road and saw a tractor-drawn flame throwers driving along the edge of the fields setting fire to the leaves of the sugar cane plants.  The burning must also bring lots of grubs and insects out into the open because following the flame thrower were hundreds of egrets feeding off the remains.  A remarkable sight.

Fishing for Speck

Along the west side of the lake we stopped at one of the points where a canal enters the lake (there are several canals running from the Atlantic north of Miami to the Gulf of Mexico side).  There were lots of people fishing, nearly all of them black people.  They were fishing for Speck or Speckled Perch apparently - a fish that is good to eat. The Bass Fishermen fishing from their boats on the lake who were more white were likely fishing for sport and trophy fish.

Lake Okeechobee

We drove through the mainly agricultural land with very poor housing to the city of Okechobee where we stopped for lunch.  

The murals of Lake Placid

Driving on towards home we headed to Lake Placid which is not a very big town (just over 2,000 people) and not all that remarkable except - it is decorated with some 40 or 50 murals; it also has a 240 ft tall concrete observation tower, once the tallest cement block building in the world and also once housing the highest public telephone in the state of Florida; the surrounding area is also the source of 98% of the world's caladium bulbs.  Lake Placid was originally called Lake Stearns but a Dr Melvil Dewey from Lake Placid, New York petitioned to change the name to Lake Placid in 1927.  Dr Dewey just happened to be the creator of the Dewey Decimal library classification system.  Who knew such a small and insignificant town could have so much to offer.  Oh and it also is the home of the American Clown Museum and School where you can learn the history of clowning and take classes to become one.

On a Sunday afternoon, the town was almost deserted and not a business was open in the old part of town.  We toured around taking pictures of the murals and then went on our way back to St Petersburg.

Florida, Georgia, South Carolina - January 2025

We were in Florida at the start of 2025 and we were given a voucher for a week's stay at a condo in Hilton Head, South Carolina by my friend Richard L.   So we decided to go and explore that area of the country using Hilton Head as our base. 

We set off from St Petersburg on a Saturday morning heading north towards Crystal River, an area in Florida with several warm springs where there is a winter gathering of manatees.  Never having seen these wonderful creatures in real life, this would make an excellent start to our trip.  We didn't have much of an idea of where and how we could see the manatees, but by pure luck we happened to stop for a late breakfast at a roadside cafe called Grannies.  This just happened to be next door to the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center.  After way too much food - biscuits, grits, pancakes, and more we went over to the visitor center to get educated on Manatees.

We were told that this was an excellent time for viewing manatees - in the winter the manatees seek refuge in the warmer waters of the springs.  They feed out in the waters of the Gulf (still the Gulf of Mexico at that time) during the day and then migrate into the clear spring water lagoons for the night.  That morning they had counted some 200 manatees in the lagoon at nearby Three Sisters Springs.  Unfortunately it was also the weekend for the Manatee Festival in Crystal River so the area was going to be quite crowded.

Snorkelers, Kayakers and Manatees

We parked and walked out to the the boardwalk at Three Sisters Springs and indeed there were manatees there - they looked like large grey brown rocks on the bottom of the clear water.  If you were patient, every now and then they would slowly move and come up to the surface to breathe.  Not the most dynamic of  animals and I was initially a bit disappointed.  There were a lot of people and a lot commercial operators renting kayaks and snorkeling gear to folks who were wanting a closer view. 

Manatees returning to the spring lagoon

We then walked around to the other side of the ponds and on that side things were much more interesting.  There was a narrow channel into the main lagoon where we saw a constant flow of manatees returning from feeding out in the bay.  They are quite graceful slow moving monsters - one after the other they swam up the channel into the main pond, some with young by their side.  That side of the viewing area really made it all worthwhile.

After having our fill of manatees,  we headed on towards our destination for the night - St Augustine.  We drove on mainly minor roads through some nice countryside.  We passed near Ocala, which I learned was one of the top horse breeding areas in the US.   Lots of open green fields which is not typical of the rest of Florida which is mainly just a big swamp.

Christmas in January in St Augustine

St Augustine claims to be the oldest continually occupied settlement in the USA (Pensacola is older but was not continuously occupied).  We picked a hotel in the old part of town - actually on the fringes of the oceanfront drive - The Bayfront Inn on Avenida Menendez.  We checked in and set off to discover the town.  I wasn't expecting it to be such a party town but the main street through the old town, St George St, was full of bars, restaurants, tacky shops and partygoers.  Something similar to Bourbon Street in New Orleans.   It also appeared to be still Christmas in St Augustine.  All the buildings were bedecked in Christmas Lights and Christmas Trees, Christmas music was playing.  A rather disappointing introduction to this historic city.

We walked around St George Street, Cathedral Plaza to the old city walls then went to eat at the oh so romantic sounding Chez L'Amour restaurant.  We ate mediocre food at the bar.  We walked back to the hotel past the rather impressive old fort, the Castillo de San Marcos.

A quiet Sunday morning in old town, St Augustine

 

Next morning we set off for another walk around the old town.  It was a little less crowded and a lot calmer early on a Sunday morning.  

Cathedral Basilica St Augustine, Interior

They were setting up for mass in the Cathedral - a modest interior for a Catholic Church.  The nearby plaza was the site where Andrew Young was attacked by white supremacists back in 1964 - there is a monument in the plaza to commemorate this.  Next to the Cathedral is an old bank building, the Treasury,  now used only for weddings and other ceremonies.  The old Governors House is older and simpler and now houses a museum.

Flagler College, previously the Ponce de Leon Hotel

The really wonderful buildings were the old hotels that were built in St Augustine in the late 19th century.  Perhaps the most impressive is the old Ponce de Leon Hotel, which is now the home to Flagler College.  A most impressive building that was built by Henry Flagler (one of the founders of Standard Oil) in the 1880's.   What an ambitious project building a hotel like that was for its time.

The Lightner Museum, previously the Alcazar Hotel

Across the square is another grand hotel, also built by Flagler, the Alcazar.  A Chicago Publisher, Otto Lightner bought the Alcazar in 1947 and changed it into his private museum for his collection of fine artifacts from America's Gilded Age .  One year later, the building was given over to the city of St Augustine and it is now the Lightner Museum showing off his collection.  

The Casa Monica Hotel, St Augustine

On the other side of the square is the equally grand Casa Monica Hotel.  This still operates as a hotel.

The Indoor Swimming Pool at the Lightner Museum

The Russian Steam Room, Lightner Museum

We visited the Lightner Museum.  It is an interesting eclectic collection of antiques from the Gilded Age of America (1870 - 1890).  It also houses an impressive collection of Dutch paintings.  The building also has some wonderful features from its days as a hotel.  It once housed a Russian steam room, Sulphur baths, massage parlors and the largest (for its time) indoor swimming pool in the world.  The swimming pool no longer holds water and has been converted into a restaurant and cafe.

After the museum visit it was raining quite heavily.  We checked out of our hotel and drove north past Jacksonville and Savannah to Hilton Head.  

Hilton Head is quite the resort island.  It is full of vacations resorts, hotels and golf courses.  Thankfully the development has been carried out quite respectfully and tastefully.  The resorts and shopping centers are subtly hidden away behind trees and greenery.  There is no conspicuous advertising for the various restaurants and shops.  The island is not named after the Hilton of Hilton Hotels fame but rather after Captain William Hilton, an English sea captain, who sailed by in 1663 and named it after himself, as they did in those days.  

Our condo resort was called the Village at Palmetto Dunes.  Palmettos are either a cockroach like bug or a fronded palm plant.  Thankfully our location took its name from the plant.

There was a simple check-in and we were given our code for the door to our unit - a two bedroom, two bath unit with kitchen and lounge overlooking a golf course.  There are over 40 golf courses on the island.

Sunset Hilton Head Beach

We settled in and went for a walk on the beach - a beautiful expanse of sand stretching off into the distance in either direction.

Sunrise Hilton Head Beach

The next morning, Monday, I went for a rather chilly run on the beach.  I was poorly dressed for the weather by the time I got back I was seriously frozen.  I don't think I have ever experienced the extreme pain of reheating my hands quite like that before.

As we were expecting bad weather for the next day. we decided to take this last fine weather day to visit Savannah, some hour or so to the south of Hilton Head.  It was Martin Luther King Day so many museums were closed.  The Savannah College of Art and Design or SCAD has an art gallery along with many other facilities around the city.  SCAD is everywhere in Savannah but alas closed on MLK Day.  

The Georgia Queen

We parked near the Savannah River and the old part of town and walked along the edge of the river.  There is an old River Boat moored alongside - the Georgia Queen.  The waterfront in Savannah has a pedestrian area and cobbled street just above river level and then a sharp rise up to the bluff upon which the rest of the city sits.  There are a series of wharves on the river level stretching up to the upper level with cast iron bridge walkways across from the upper level streets to the top of the lower level buildings,  There are precarious stone steps up the side of the bluff to allow for pedestrian traffic between the levels. 

Cotton Exchange, Savannah

The old Cotton Exchange and Freemasons Hall is particularly interesting building dating from the 1880's when a couple of million bales of cotton passed through the port of Savannah.

Savannah Rose

We got talking to an old lady who was making roses out of palmetto fronds.  She went by the name of Savannah Rose Gail and was proud of the fact that she had been making these roses for a long time and had been on TV and had quite a presence on You Tube.  We were charmed by her and we chatted for a while as she made us a rose bouquet.  It looked like it had been a tough life for Gail but she was quite positive and quite charming - $15 well spent.

Further along the river bank we encountered a painter selling his wares.  He was a Haitian painter by the name of Jean Claude Martin.  Some of his art was a bit cheesy but there were some real gems in his work.  We mulled over whether or not to buy one and decided to go for breakfast to think about.

We found a nearby restaurant, B. Matthews, for a late brunch.  We both had that southern favorite, fried green tomatoes with eggs and crab cakes.  It was perfect.

The Art Purchase

We discussed over brunch whether to buy a painting from Jean Claude and decided yes, for a price - not more than $300.  We went to an ATM got some cash and went to see Jean Claude where I drove him down from $400 to $260.  What a deal..... maybe.

With our artwork and Savannah Rose we went back to the car and drove out to the visitor center where we bought tickets for the bus tour of Savannah.  This was a couple of hours driving around and being entertained by our driver/guide, Tammy.  She was quite the humorist and had everyone in stitches with her commentary.

We were driven around the town through all the lovely squares and streets.   There are so many fine homes and churches and the tree lined streets and squares with all the Spanish Moss hanging from the trees.  As Tammy, our guide, told us Spanish Moss is neither Spanish nor Moss but it is quite pretty. It is actually a bromeliad.  Notable sights were the square where Forrest Gump sat on the park bench waiting for his bus, the house where Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of the US Girl Scouts, was born, and Flannery O'Connors childhood home.

After the bus tour we drove down to the river once more and had a coffee and cake in the Savannah Plant Riverside area.  This is an old generating plant that has now been repurposed as a hotel, bar and cafe.  It houses an impressive array of fossils (polished ammonites, belemnites, mammoth tusks) and minerals (mainly agates).  After coffee we set off back to Hilton Head and settled in for a very cold evening.

The next morning, Tuesday, it was grey and cloudy and the beach walk was not as interesting.  Diana was starting to come down with a cold so she stayed in most of the day.  I made a trip out to buy more groceries.  We were warned of bad weather and snow coming later in the day.

Snow on beach in Hilton Head

Overnight we had a significant amount of snow.  In the morning everywhere in Hilton Head was covered in snow.  We didn't risk driving anywhere but we did walk to the beach.  The beach was covered with about 4in of snow.  We remained indoors for the rest of the day watching movies, reading and napping.

Snow in Hilton Head

We did not have any more snow but the weather stayed cold and there was very little melting of the snow.  The following day, Thursday, we also didn't stray too far.  A walk to the beach.  A drive out to see if any restaurants were open (they weren't) and more movies and reading.  

After two days of confinement, we decided to leave our condo a day early and carefully drive north to Charleston.  We set off Friday morning and made our slow drive north on roads that were for the most part snow free but wherever the road was shaded by trees there were patches of snow and ice.  South Carolina just doesn't have any equipment for removing snow so they don't know what to do with it and when it doesn't get far above freezing it just sticks around.

The Charleston Hotel - 20 South Battery

We arrived in Charleston early afternoon and checked into a nice hotel, 20 South Battery - an old mansion on the south battery that has been converted to a hotel.   The hotel was one of the first old homes to be preserved and renovated in Charleston and it had some wonderful features - a ballroom, a tiled floor, a library, a beautiful staircase.

Tiled Hallway, 20 South Btattery

Ballroom, now a Dining Room, 20 South Battery

We setoff to explore the town and walked north on a street. (Meeting Street) lined with so many wonderful fine homes and mansions.  It is a beautiful city - there are so many old mansions and churches.  Surely one of the finer American cities.  However it is all tempered by the fact that this was all built with money from the slave trade.  

Rainbow Row, Charleston

From Meeting Street we walked down the old covered Market and then into the French Quarter to Bay Street where there are many fine restaurants.  We made reservations at Magnolia for later that evening.  Then it was out along Rainbow Row, a group of nice old building painted different colors (not as impressive as the Painted Ladies in San Francisco).  

Back at the hotel we enjoyed wine and snacks with our other guests - Richard and Mary from Atlanta in town for the now canceled Half Marathon that weekend.  

The Nathaniel Russel House

The next day we were out and about early walking in the same area of old town once more.  We toured the Nathaniel Russel House and got a glimpse at how well a wealthy slave owner lived in the past.  Nathaniel was a major importer of slaves.  Charleston was built on the backs of slaves.  It was one of the main points of entry of the slave cargoes on the East Coast and auctions were a common occurrence.

Watercolor Portraits on Ivory, Gibbes Museum

We visited the Gibbes Museum of Art.  A relatively small museum with a nice art collection.  It has the largest collection of water color portraits on ivory in the world.  I didn't even know portraits on ivory were a thing, but in their day they were.

Market Hall, Charleston

We walked back through the covered market, a long market that was initiated in 1780 and stretches 4 city blocks towards the bay.  We visited the old Slave Market, now a museum, but alas it was closed.  The snow and ice that still remained was still impacting a lot of facilities.

We left Charleston mid afternoon to start our drive back south.  The destination for the night was Savannah where we stayed in the heart of the old town near the river (an excellently located Holiday Inn Express).  Dinner of Shrimp and Grits and Fried Green Tomatoes at Vic's on the River.

Fine Savannah Mansion

The next morning, Sunday morning, we did a short walk around the old town admiring the parks and squares and fine homes.  The homes were not quite as impressive as Charleston, but there were some very nice ones.   The Spanish Moss laden trees in the parks and squares were also quite beautiful.  Chippewa Square is where Forrest Gump sat on a bench waiting for a bus.  

Chippewa Square, Savannah

We left around lunchtime and drove south to Gainesville where we were staying with Diana's friends, Biljana and Eric.  Their house was just outside Gainesville on the edge of a wilderness area called Paynes Prairie.  They had a wonderful outlook over the prairie with hardly a house to be seen.  Before dinner that evening we went for a walk in the Prairie.  A marshy plain which periodically floods in the wet season with abundant wildlife - wild horses, alligators, and a multitude of bird life.  There is even a herd of buffalo there.

Wild Horse on Paynes Prairie, Gainesville

The stars at night were shining brightly and the sunrise the next morning was spectacular.

Sunrise over Paynes Prairie

After breakfast we went for a nice walk in an adjacent park, the Sweetwater Wetlands Park.  Nice trails through a mainly wooded area.  Beautiful clear water streams.  It was still cool so there weren't many alligators around just a couple lying motionless on the banks of the sink hole pools.

Alligator in Sweetwater Wetlands Park, Gainesville

We bade farewell to our hosts in Gainesville and drove the couple of hours back to St Petersburg.  An interesting trip.  A first time visit to that area for both of us.